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Many modern cars already collect data that would be useful to climatologists and weather forecasters.
For instance, the state of the headlights; the engine intake air temperature, and possibly humidity; whether the wipers are on or not, and of on, how fast.
These data could be logged based on
both time and distance traveled; as the vehicle passes a roadside transponder, it is "pinged" to transmit its logged data in a burst, after which the logger clears its buffer and starts again.
Information such as "All the cars on Road X are moving very slowly and have headlights on and wipers at double speed" would be a sure sign that it's Summer in some part of England ...
Cellphone weather (base) station
Cellphone_20weather...28base%29_20station
[AbsintheWithoutLeave]'s Prior Art acknowledged. [8th of 7, Aug 24 2011]
[link]
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Also, this would allow individual cars to be tracked and billboards changed in advance to target the drivers! Even if identified only by make and model this would tell enough about the driver to successfully target ads. Or public services. Cars favored by profligate spenders would be met with flashy mall ads. Cars likely driven by criminals would be confronted by a Smokey the Bear type billboard, admonishing drivers to forgo crime. Cars of make and model preferred by alcoholics could be identified after closing time, with billboards changing to Big Brother watching for unsafe driving, to help them maintain focus. Cars which transmit data grossly unlike their cotravelers could be identified as defectives and their input ignored; such cars might also receive some corrective measures or other discipline. |
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Yes, yes, Bun! For the public good! |
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Perhaps having "Anonymised" as the first word of the idea title, to emphasise that the data would in no way identify the vehicle or its owner/drive, wasn't quite clear enough for you, [bungs] ... |
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I thought cell phones and tablets/netbooks/PC's could all have just two small, tiny, tiny components extra : an absolute pressure gauge, for barometer pressure, and a temperature sensor. |
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This would provide an explotion in readily available internet weatherforecast data, say 20 to 100 data points per square kilometer, |
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giving minute gradient information over populated areas, where meteological data are most appreciated. |
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// minute gradient information over populated areas, where meteological data are most appreciated // |
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"Amazingly, It's another beautiful 70 deg F day here in Death Valley..." |
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I guess it wouldn't be too hard to put in a little ON/OFF select flag somewhere deep in the menus ... after all it doesn't have to actually do anything, the transponder still operates, but it gives the owner that warm feeling of having just a tiny bit of control. |
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// "All the cars on Road X are moving very slowly and have
headlights on and wipers at double speed" would be a sure
sign that it's Summer in some part of England ... // |
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"A rented motorcycle is traveling on the M4, surrounded by
cars with headlights and wipers activated... The
motorcyclist has just pulled into a rest area to wait out the
rain... Okay, now he's inside and has just tucked into a
nice jacket potato... and, oh, look, the sun's come out!" |
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Sure sign that [The Alterother] is in England. |
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Oh, that was you on the Superglide? |
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// Oh, that was you on the Superglide? // |
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Probably not. But I was the one who created all the
freakishly short cloudbursts you had in the summer of '09.
It started raining whenever we got on the bike, and
stopped the minute we got off. |
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No, that's just a nice illustration of cause and effect; whenever someone in England gets on a motorbike, it starts to rain. |
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That's why it rains a lot. |
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It's a bit like the Quantum Weather Butterfly, but on two wheels. |
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